MARGAO: Bowing down to public pressure over the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) order asking the St Sebastian Church to demarcate some portion of the church cemetery for burial or cremation for any person professing any faith, chairperson Babita Angle on Monday apologised if the order has hurt people’s sentiments and that she was not guided properly by her administration.
Angle tendered an apology after she and chief officer Y B Tawde were gheraoed by Aquem parishioners on Monday. The parishioners along with Margao and Fatorda residents took serious exception to MMC’s order and confronted Angle and Tawde seeking an explanation as to why the civic body issued an order to the religious bodies to arrange a common burial/cremation ground.
MMC chairperson Babita Angle said she was not guided properly by her administration and apologised if the order has hurt the sentiments of the people.
Aquem residents Andrew Sequeira, Clifford Dias, Robert Vaz, Riyaz Shaikh, Fatorda Congress members, Ethel D’Costa, Avinash Tavares, Piedade Noronha and several others were present.
Aquem resident Andrew Sequeira said, “The answer came in the form of profuse admissions of impropriety of the order and vociferous apologies. To our shock, in a first of its kind, sensing the mood of the people, the chairperson and chief officer passed an order on a holiday revoking their illegal order”.
Along with the order revocation demand, the residents have also called for an immediate solution to the kabrastan issue.
Riyaz Shaikh said, “The kabrastan issue appears to have been kept “festering” for political exploitation. We have informed the chairperson and chief officer that citizens will visit the Council every week till the kabrastan issue is solved”.
“The land has been acquired but problems have been created by the people there,” Chief Officer informed. The people pushed for expediting the work by use a part of the land.
The parishioners of Aquem had earlier called the order a plot of the MMC to “polarise” people on basis of religion eyeing the forthcoming elections.
